were concerned, between 1850 and 1890. While 

 considerable amounts of lumber and ties were 

 doubtless cut, much of the woodland here as else- 

 where in Connecticut was managed on a short 

 rotation for cordw r ood production so long as 

 charcoal was required for the iron industry, and 

 chestnut wood for the brass industry. Old char- 

 coal circles still bear evidence that much "coal" 

 was made here. There has been little clean cut- 

 ting during the past thirty or forty years. Since 

 the death of the chestnut most of the trees suit- 

 able for poles or ties have been cut and doubtless 

 other large trees have been culled for lumber, but 

 little cordwood has been cut. Since the acquisi- 

 tion by the State an attempt has been made to 

 salvage the remaining chestnut either as ties, 

 fence posts or fence rails. Considerable quan- 

 tities of posts and rails especially have been sold. 



This forest is a portion of the region known 

 in old times as the "Greenwoods" because of the 

 large amount of hemlock and pine in mixture. 

 Of this Barkhamsted section the historian 

 Barber 1 says in 1836 : "The mountains and hills 

 were formerly covered w r ith excellent timber con- 

 sisting of oak, chestnut, sugar maple, beech, pine 

 and hemlock; a considerable proportion of which 

 has been destroyed by wind and fire, and by the 

 axe, under a system of improvidence, at a time 

 when timber was considered of no value." It is, 

 therefore, probable that most of the virgin 

 timber, except on the steepest slopes had been 

 cut before the Civil War. The Hitchcock Chair 



1 Connecticut Historical Collections by John Warner Barber, 

 New Haven, 1836. 



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